


Stop fighting me

by Hugsfree-hugme (Noheawilstro808)



Series: AK Codas and Oneshots [1]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotions, Feelings, M/M, Mention of blood, hurt character, i don't really know how to tag, these boys need to talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 18:37:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20030476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noheawilstro808/pseuds/Hugsfree-hugme
Summary: Adrian sees the wet rag is still by his side and he goes to grab it. “Maybe we should just wipe you up at least. Try to get you out of those clothes and comfortable.” He whispers as he tries to wipe away some blood from Deran’s face.Deran winches and moves away from him, hitting his hand away. “No Adrian just leave it. I can do it myself”“DAMN IT DERAN WILL YOU STOP FIGHTING ME!!!” Adrian snaps.Or the missing scenes from Episode 8 I was hoping for.





	Stop fighting me

**Author's Note:**

> Coda from Episode 8. Thank you to allthehearteyes for being my beta for this story.

It was close to late in the evening and Adrian is ready to just call it a night. Between the conversation with Deran that morning and following Livengood, watching where and who he lived with, Adrian just wanted to wake up from this nightmare, or at least go to sleep and escape from it for a few hours. 

The tension between him and Deran is suffocating to say the least. Deran could barely look at him or touch him and when he does, that cold sharp bite is always there. Adrian knows he screwed up big time and he honestly was surprised that Deran told him to come home. He said he would help but if this is what it is going to be like, Deran holding this over his head, he couldn’t help but think why bother telling him to come back then. Why does Deran want him here when he can barely look at him? It didn’t matter, he is most likely going to jail anyways. 

Adrian sighs as he puts his head in hands while he sits on the couch. He is just about to stand up to go to the bedroom when he hears the door close. He looks to see Deran and feels all the blood drain from his face. Deran looks close to something Adrian only has had nightmares about up until now. He stands up and starts walking towards Deran, just about to reach out to him before Deran turns away. He is pulled back to reality, remembering the situation they are currently in. He shakes off the reminder of nightmares that he has had in the past whenever Deran ran a job and stands in front of him. 

“What the hell happened to you?” He tries to say in a steady voice but hears the quiver in it. 

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.” Deran says in short and Adrian doesn’t know whether snort, roll his eyes, or cry. 

“Don’t worr..” Adrian starts before shaking his head and going into the kitchen, needing to find something to make himself useful. He can feel Deran’s eyes on him as he looks for a couple of rags, wetting one completely, while wrapping the other one in a bag of ice. “Do you need to go to the hospital?” He asks, unable to turn around and look at him. Not wanting to see the anger and bitterness in Deran’s eyes. 

“Yeah right. I don’t want to talk about it Adrian. Just let it go.” Deran answers as he walks to where Adrian was just sitting and bends down to the couch. Adrian watches him grimace with every move he makes and was one breath away from crying. He walks to Deran and moves the wet rag towards him, wanting nothing more than to wash the blood away from his boyfriend’s face but knows he will just be turned away. Deran looks back and forth from Adrian to the rag before Adrian softly answers, “Use it, wipe your face or something. You look like you went through a meat grinder.” 

Deran rolls his eyes and tosses the rag to the side before grabbing the ice pack from Adrian’s other hand and places it on his face. Adrian isn’t sure if he should sit down or leave the room but he knows he should do something besides standing there like an idiot. 

“Do you need anything else?” He offers. He sees Deran bite his lip, almost like he wants to say something but decides against it before says.

“A beer sounds good.” 

Adrian nods a starts towards the kitchen, before he knows it though he made his way to the bathroom. He closes the door and leans against it to blink away the tears starting to fall from his eyes. Deran doesn’t need to deal with this tears right now, probably would tear him down for it. 

Seeing Deran come home hurt like that is one of Adrian’s worst nightmares. He knows what Deran does with his family; everyone does. He accepted that this was something he was going to have to live with when he decided to be with Deran. It just sucks that now he can’t do anything to help. Seeing the bitterness and anger in Deran reminds him of the Deran from earlier. The Deran that beat him up and left him in the bathroom, the Deran that refused to show any type of affection. What kills him the most is Deran is like this because of him and now he can’t even touch him, help him, even comfort him. Deran would just push him away, just like he felt Adrian push him away all these months as he lied to him about the trouble he was in. 

All of this was his fault, his mess. He finally had the Deran he fell in love with, and more, but his pride kept taking hit after hit. Having to take money, not being wanted by sponsors, having to go to Jack so at least he could maybe keep surfing and not have to take money from Deran, then getting caught, getting his immunity taken away. All of it just kept coming. Deran had come so far in the past couple of years, where he could stand tall on his own and know he worked for it all. Adrian is approaching 30 and what does he have to show for himself...Nothing. 

He realizes he’s been in the bathroom for a good minute and should probably go back out there. He goes to the sink and washes his face as he looks at himself in the mirror. He shakes his head, no longer being able to look at himself and goes out to the kitchen. He grabs the beer that Deran asked for and makes his way towards him.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Every since he told Deran about the kid seats he just feels numb. Scared of what Deran is thinking of doing. As he looks over to Deran every now and then, he is having a hard time reading him which is something new to Adrian. As little as Deran communicate with words, he screams out loud with his body language and expressions but right now, maybe because he is probably in so much pain, Adrian can’t tell what he is thinking. His body is stiff, his face closed off and covered with blood. 

These past few days Deran has done nothing but surprise him out of nowhere. His confession of love, his calm demeanor after Adrian confessed and tells him to come back home, that they will figure this out, together. As much as Adrian has wanted Deran to do all of that, he never fully believed he ever would. 

He knows he never responded to Deran with an “I love you” but just like Deran, Adrian wasn’t that good with words either. It is how they have always been with each other, especially Deran. Never saying anything with words but with actions. Except now Deran won’t let Adrian respond. Deran would never accept hearing it from him now, not with everything that’s on the table. But gosh what Adrian would do right now for him to at least look at him and not see the hurt behind his eyes; to just let him put his hand on his thigh, his head on his shoulder, just anything. 

Adrian is taken out of his thoughts when he hears Deran slightly groan beside him and sees him remove the rag from his face. 

“Let me get you more ice.” He says. Deran shakes his head. “No just leave it.”

Adrian sees the wet rag is still by his side and he goes to grab it. “Maybe we should just wipe you up at least. Try to get you out of those clothes and comfortable.” He whispers as he tries to wipe away some blood from Deran’s face. 

Deran winches and moves away from him, hitting his hand away. “No Adrian just leave it. I can do it myself”

“DAMN IT DERAN WILL YOU STOP FIGHTING ME!!!” Adrian snaps. Both Adrian and Deran are surprised by the outburst. He didn’t mean to let that out but he just..wants both of them to stop hurting. He wants Deran to stop hurting and although he can’t stop the pain that he caused Deran on the inside he wants to at least help him with his cuts and bruises. 

He looks at Deran head on though showing him just how much he is feeling right now. He knows Deran can’t look him in the eyes right now but it doesn’t stop him from challenging him. He sees Deran trying to keep his glare before biting his lip and looking away. He moves to kneel in front of him and lightly cups Deran’s chin.

“Don’t you dare-” Deran starts, trying to move away but Adrian doesn’t back down and cups both his hands on Deran’s cheek, trying his best to not touch any of Deran’s cuts.

“Listen to me Deran!” Adrian cuts off. “I get it, you are still upset with me. You should be. I can’t erase the damage that I have done but please Deran I am begging you let me at least help you. You don’t even have to look at me” he offers on the point of desperation. 

“I just want to help you get out of these clothes, help you into the shower and then you can go to bed alright. I will leave you alone after that, hell I won’t even get into the bed if you don’t want me too but just, please Der please just let me help you.”

Adrian can feel his cheeks start to hurt as his eyes begin to burn but he stands his ground and waits for Deran to answer him, hoping he doesn’t get turned away anymore. Deran stares at him square in the eyes probably for the first time since the confession. He lets out a breath and brings his hand to wrap around one of Adrian’s wrists that was holding his face. 

“Alright.” He whispers as he drops his eyes. Adrian swallows the gasp that almost escaped him as relief sweeps his body and nods his head. He is just about to move his hands when he feels Deran’s hold on his wrist tightened. He looks back and is shocked to see Deran staring at him with an intensity. 

“Yeah?” He whispers.

“You don’t need to…” Deran starts but he never finishes but the way he is finally looking at Adrian he doesn’t need too. This was the language that Adrian fully understood when it comes to Deran. _ You can sleep on the bed, I will look at you, I am still mad...I am still hurt. I am going to protect you. Don’t ever do this again. _

Adrian tries to look at Deran with the same intensity that he is looking at Adrian with. Deran is the man that he always knew he could be, he deserves to be happy, to not have the weight of someone else problems on him. Although he doesn’t know exactly what lengths Deran would go to help him, he knows he would at least go to great lengths. And Adrian loves him so much for that but seeing the pain in Deran’s eyes gives all the strength Adrian needs to know what he has to do, even if it means going to jail. Deran shouldn’t have to pay for his mistakes. Deran pays for almost everything, that is how all of this started. Adrian will not make him pay for this. 

He takes a chance and leans forward to place his forehead on Deran’s. He feels him tense up whether from pain or something else Adrian doesn’t know. He also doesn’t care if he is getting blood on his hands or hair right now he just needs Deran to be okay. 

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”


End file.
